


It's All a Lie

by wintersorchid



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Multi, Spytalia, spy AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-13
Updated: 2017-06-01
Packaged: 2018-02-25 04:45:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 10,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2608946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintersorchid/pseuds/wintersorchid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I'm so, so sorry this is taking me forever to finish, but I promise I'm almost done.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [It's All A Lie](https://archiveofourown.org/works/701993) by [AnotherWriterWhoWrites](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnotherWriterWhoWrites/pseuds/AnotherWriterWhoWrites). 



> I'm so, so sorry this is taking me forever to finish, but I promise I'm almost done.

The alarm went off at exactly six am and Maria immediately reached out and slapped the snooze button, silencing it right away. Behind her, Roderich shifted, rolling from his back to his side, but didn’t wake.

Perfect.

Now to start the day. Lunches needed to be made, then Sarah, their young daughter, needed to be woken. Roderich had been complaining of the lunches she had been giving him recently, so she needed to change his meals up. Their daughter, however, couldn’t care as long as it was in squares. The sandwich, the cookies, even the veggies, all had to be in squares. Thank goodness she was clever and could cut squares out of turnips and bright beets. Fruits were too complicated, so she had to serve them after school. When the lunches and breakfast were ready, she gently woke her daughter, kissing her forehead as the little girl stirred.

“Good morning! I have breakfast for you and a nice cup of tea.”

Sarah grumbled at the time but got up anyway.

“Go wash up, sweetie.”

Once she was sure Sarah was washing her face and brushing her hair, Maria poked her head into the master bedroom where she heard the shower running.

Excellent.

Sitting down at the table, she drank her tea and ate her food, finishing before the others sat down. This way she could mind Sarah’s eating as she cleaned the dishes. Soon enough, it was time for them to go and with a kiss for each of them, Maria saw them off, Sarah to her bus and Roderich to his car.

Now to clean up.

The table and kitchen floor were scrubbed free of crumbs, the living room dusted and vacuumed, the beds made, the laundry done, the windows cleaned. It wasn’t too much work since she did it every day, but better to do it constantly rather than wait until it was a mess.

A clean home was a good home.

By the time Sarah came home from school, her snack was waiting on the table for her to eat while she did homework. Roderich arrived a few hours later just in time for dinner, a Hungarian dish she still couldn’t quite pronounce. They chatted throughout the meal, Sarah talking over her parents’ discussion of groceries and work to tell them about the new class pet. The day ended with Maria vacuuming through the house one more time to catch any dust or crumbs on the floor.

In the morning, the alarm went off at six again and the routine began all over again. Soon enough it was almost Friday and Maria found herself counting down the hours until Roderich came home. He always took them out for a family activity like a movie or the opera on Friday and it was planned out at Thursday night’s dinner conversation. Sarah had told Roderich about an apple orchard her teacher had told the class about, and she begged her father to let them go. After reviewing her grades and behavior, he agreed and a time set up on Saturday.

Before the alarm went off on Friday, Maria woke with a start, fearful of the dream she had. She was standing next to another woman, one who was wearing a cropped shirt Maria never would have approved of in real life.

While she didn’t personally know the woman, her mind gave a title: Sister. Maria was an only child. An only child to a pair of parents who had died last year.   
Oh how she had cried at their funerals.

In the dream, there were gunshots. Blood liberally splattered the surfaces in the dream as the other woman laughed while she fired. Maria fired a gun as well and in the dream, she had enjoyed what she did. When everyone in the room was dead, they stood in the middle and laughed together. No regret.

She woke with a gasp, jumping when the alarm went off. Fumbling for it in the dark, she nervously made her way to the kitchen, expecting to be startled at any second by trodding on a soft body or hear a gunshot. Nothing came and as she woke up more, she realized how silly it had been. Most likely she had been affected by the tragic news story of the boy who accidentally shot himself with his father’s gun. Poor boy.

The rest of the day continued as it usually did, except for Roderich picking them up after he came home from work. He drove them all to their favorite place for dinner and told Sarah he had set up a time for them to pick apples the next day, and she squealed in excitement, much to her parent’s amusement; she sat up straighter in her seat, as if to prove she was on her best behavior.

It was a lovely, ordinary Friday evening.

However the next moment everything changed.

A barely audible revving drew Maria’s attention to the window and she glanced over just in time to watch a sleek black car smash through the glass, spraying everyone with shards. People started running for the exits, screaming in their panic.

A tall man with impossibly pale hair stepped out and fired two shots into the ceiling, causing more mayhem. Roderich grabbed her hand and pulled them both under the table. Maria instinctively tucked herself over Sarah as Roderich curled around her, forming a double layer of protection over their little girl.  
Hopefully, with the long tablecloth, they wouldn’t been seen and they could escape-- But there was no luck here tonight. The tall man who had gotten out of the car threw the table off them and grabbed Maria by the arm, hauling her up until her feet no longer touched the ground. His eyes were a cold purple and she shivered in fear.

“I have her!” he called, pulling her towards the car where another woman waited, gun at the ready in case someone tried to attack.

“Hurry up then!” she called back and with a start, Maria recognized her. This was the woman from the dream!

“Let me go!” she demanded, dragging her feet in an attempt to stop him, screaming and stretching backwards with her hand for her husband, desperate for salvation. “Roderich!”

“Leave her alone,” Roderich cried, leaping up to try and protect his wife.

In response, the tall man turned around and sharply hit Roderich upside the head with the butt of his gun, leaving him where he fell. Sarah started screaming and Maria fought even more strongly until she was bodily thrown into the car. Before she could try to get out, the tall man had sat down and closed the door; with a jerk, the car backed up over what remained of the wall and sped off into the night. 

“See anything?” the woman asked as the man twisted around to look out the back window.

“Nothing so far…. But we never know with them.”

Maria wasn’t sure she wanted to know who them were and she glanced through the back window, worried they’d have someone on their tail, despite the man’s insistence. Her poor daughter! She had to get back soon!

“You have to let me go!” she tried again.

“Not funny. The joke's over,” the man told her sharply. The woman glanced at her through the rearview mirror.

“Come on, Maria. It’s over. You’re safe.”

“I’m not safe! If I was safe, I would be back there. With my family!”

“He’s not your husband and she’s not your daughter,” the woman told her. The car jerked to the left and they raced up onto a highway. “It’s all been a lie.”

“A lie? You two are insane. I’ve been happily married for the last seven years and we have a daughter.”

“Nope.”

Before she could elaborate, the man cocked his gun. “Incoming at seven o’clock.”

Maria was pushed down into the bottom of the car as the man rolled down the window. Leaning out without any apparent regard to his safety, he started firing at the car behind them. She covered her ears and screamed as they swerved, terrified the car would flip over and her family would be left without her.

“I’m going to lose them,” the woman warned.

The man pulled himself inside as she swerved one more time. He held onto a handle on the roof as, suddenly, it felt as if the ground had dropped out beneath them. Maria screamed until they landed and the air was knocked out of her. As she struggled to look outside, she realized they had driven off the side of the road and dropped onto a different road further down.

There were cars rushing past them, honking at the lunatic who was driving the wrong way at such incredible speeds.

“You’re insane!” she shrieked. “The both of you are insane! Let me out!”

“We can’t do that,” the man told her, shaking his head. “You’re too important.”

“I’m no one! I’m Maria Edelstein, housewife and mother! I’m no one important enough to kidnap!”

“Wrong again. You’re Maria Beilschmidt, secret agent, and you have information we desperately need.”

Her jaw worked for a minute as words failed her. “I… No. I don’t know what insane asylum you two crawled out of, but you are wrong.”

“My name is Ivan Braginsky,” the man continued, as if he hadn’t heard her. “And the one driving is my field partner and girlfriend, and your younger sister, Louise.”

The woman gave a two fingered salute through the rearview mirror.

“I don’t have a sister,” Maria insisted. “I'm an only child.”

“Well doesn’t that make me feel loved,” Louise drawled sarcastically. The car jerked again, off an exit - rather, up an entrance to the highway, still going the wrong way until another jerk had them speeding along a dark side road.

The dream she had the night before flashed through her mind. “You’re insane,” she repeated. “I got married seven years ago and had a child six years ago. I’ve never been a spy.”

“Assassin, really,” Louise corrected. “The organization’s job is spying, yours was killing people who needed to be killed.”

“I could never kill anyone!”

“I find that hard to believe, considering you had the highest kill record out of all of us. For a while at least,” Ivan continued for Louise. “But just this morning we were able to locate you and realized not only have you been compromised, but also brainwashed. Forced to believe this entire charade.”

“I haven’t been forced into believing anything! And I demand you let me go! My husband will have called the police and I can assure you once they catch you, you both will be persecuted so severely you will never see the light of day again!”

Both her kidnappers laughed loudly.

“Oh that’s rich. I don’t know which to laugh at more, the police or the prosecution,” Louise managed, finally setting her gun on the passenger seat.

“I’m rather partial to the part where we never see daylight again,” Ivan grinned, holstering his own weapon.

Finally, Louise slowed the car down as she turned into an underground garage; Maria shivered in fear.

“You don’t have to worry, Sister. We’re not going to hurt you. We’re just going to help you get your memory back,” Louise told her in a soothing voice as the two strangers stepped out of the car.

“I’m not your sister, you maniac!” She clutched the seat in front of her as tightly as she could. “And I’m not going anywhere!”

Before she could react further, Ivan had hauled her out of the car and over his shoulder, Louise following behind with a grin as they all headed inside the building.

“Put me down, put me down!” Maria howled, trying to kick or punch his vital areas. If her attacks affected him in any way, he didn’t show it, nor did he put her down.

As they were lifted by the elevator, the two kidnappers were quiet, remaining silent as they walked through several hallways where Maria’s screeching drew other’s attentions. Most watched with interest while others simply rolled their eyes and returned to work. Ivan lead them to a room where Louise shut the door behind them. A new man looked up with a mildly surprised expression from the papers he had been working on.

“Put me down!” Maria screeched one more time.

“Alright, alright. Here.”

She was roughly dropped into a chair in front of the desk.

“Interesting little stunt. May I ask what happened?”

“Arthur, there’s been a change in the situation,” Louise told him. “It appears they did something to her. She no longer remembers anything.”

“Not to mention she has a completely different set of memories,” Ivan added as he wrapped his arm around Louise’s waist.

Maria gripped the chair she was sitting in. “All of you are insane. Just wait until the police come - and they will. My husband will have already called and alerted them to my kidnapping.”

“And you’re going to prosecute us so harshly we’ll never see the light of day again, you’ve already said this.”

“So you’re saying she’s been brainwashed?” Arthur asked.

Louise and Ivan shared a look before they shrugged.

“It’s hard to say,” Louise confessed. “She denies being my sister -”

“I’m an only child!”

“She denies knowing who we are.”

“I’ve never seen you before in my life!”

“And she denies being anyone important.”

“I’m a housewife!”

“A housewife?” Arthur repeated with obvious amusement.

“Stop enjoying this, I want my sister back,” Louise snapped.

Arthur held up his hands in mock surrender. “Of course, of course. Unfortunately, all I can do is send her to our psychologist. Toris might be able to help her out.”

“Electroshock therapy,” Ivan suggested, his face brightening when he saw how Maria paled. “Hypnosis. The possibilities are endless, really.”

Louise swatted his arm. “Be nice to my sister.”

Ivan rubbed his arm and pouted. “She’s been mean to me plenty of times.”

“Even so. Acting childish may work on others, but you know it doesn’t work on me.”

“If we’re done with our temper tantrums, children,” Arthur interrupted, already turning back to his computer screen. “I’d like you to take Maria to Toris as HR does not handle incidents like this. Hopefully he can start right away on getting on getting some of her memories back.”


	2. Chapter 2

Yao was almost literally frothing at the mouth when his two best workers stepped meekly into his office. Even from across the large room, they could see the muscles in his neck working as he clenched and unclenched his jaw. Ivan followed Louise across to the desk, pulling out her chair for her just for the chance to see her smile sweetly at him. It would ease the tongue lashing they were about to get.

Hopefully.

“You…. You….” Yao began, hands working in the air by his side as if he was practicing strangling them. 

“Idiots,” he finally hissed, and Ivan winced. When Yao’s voice was low and quiet, he knew he was in for it and Yao did not disappoint.

“Of all the moronic, fool-hardy, dim witted cretins! I can’t believe it, I literally cannot believe it. If I hadn’t witnessed it myself-” and indeed, there were loops of the spectacular crash from different angles playing again and again on the screens behind Yao’s desk. Ivan was rather pleased. “- I never would have believed that my top two hitmen would be so… So…. Stupid!” he finally bellowed, making them both jump.

His outburst opened the floodgates and he started chewing them out in Chinese. Ivan wished he could go back in time and keep himself from learning Chinese if only so he could spare himself this lecture. Beside him, Louise ducked her head, the very model of abashment and shame. She couldn’t understand the exact words, but the tone was clear.

“And what’s more, you put the entire operation in danger!”

“Now that’s not fair,” Louise interrupted, clearly more upset over the new accusations. “No one there knew who we were and ATIA didn’t follow us here. How did we put anyone in danger?”

Her face twisted at the mouth in the way Ivan knew she was making a mental side note to herself, most likely, ‘besides the people we sprayed with broken glass and bits of restaurant wall.’

“That’s not the point! She’s married - however real or legal or all made up in her head - to a very prominent figure. An ambassador, dimwit!”

Louise shrugged, looking over at Ivan. Their two man team was always top ranked, the best of the best. Louise was the spy, Ivan was the gun. Together they were unstoppable and had a penchant for stealing kills and thievery missions out from under other agencies. Like AITA. Yao made millions off them and got to brag constantly to his counterparts at the other spy agencies. Ivan liked to imagine the meetings sometimes, Yao looking smug as he sipped at champagne while the others looked defeated. Oh, they had tried to steal him from Yao, but thankfully Louise had talked him out of moving.

Ah, but he had gotten distracted and was watching her butt. Damn those tight pants. She and Yao were in a yelling match over the desk, standing so they could bang their fists on the abused wood.

“We’ll do better next time,” Ivan shouted suddenly, tired of the shouting. He jumped to his feet and hauling Louise out of the office by her arm. Yao’s cursing followed them down the hall, punctuated by his secretary’s snickering.


	3. Chapter 3

Maria was just having the worst day. First she was kidnapped, then her husband was hurt, who knew how badly, and her little girl was most likely crying and scared. She had been strapped down in a chair as a new man called Toris glued electrodes to her head.

There had been no way to escape from Ivan when he carried her down another hall and strapped her into the chair before disappearing to who knew where with the strange woman who called herself her sister. It had been hours and as the adrenaline from the kidnapping wore off, she found herself growing sleepy, worn out from exhaustion.

Blood was drawn and set aside, then her pulse, heart rate, blood pressure, and pupil reaction were all measured; every question she had was ignored. Now, off to the side, Toris started up a machine that hummed loudly. Maria winced, expecting an electric shock but none came. Instead Toris just hummed along with the machine as he read the printouts.

“Not bad… Not what I was expecting, but not bad.”

“What’s not bad?” Maria wanted to ask, but another voice beat her to it, asking the same question. A tall man with wavy blond hair was standing in the doorway, looking her over carefully.

“Just the results,” Toris told him, tearing off the print out and taking it over to his desk. “No abnormalities, no cracks, dents, breaks, contusions or anything that would explain this….”

“And what? She just happened to forget?” the other man asked, still staring at her with an intensity that made her skin crawl.

“Looks like it,” Toris replied far too cheerily. “Be a help and escort her over to Ms. Beilschmidt the younger’s room, please.”

He waved his hand in the air, distracted by the results. With a sigh, the newcomer undid the straps and helped her up. He kept staring at her as they walked along the twisting halls.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer,” she growled, not in the mood for any more nonsense.

“Sorry. It’s been awhile since I saw you last.”

“What, you know me too?”

“Yes.. We used to work together.”

“Together?”

“Yeah. I was the spy and you were the sniper. LIke your sister and her boyfriend.”

Urgh, Ivan. Right. Even if the woman was her sister, how could she go after him of all people? Maria just knew something was off about him.

“I’m Matthew,” the man finally said after a long silence. “I uh, guess it’s okay if you don’t remember me.”

“Listen,” she begged, pulling him to the side of the hallway. “I don’t belong here and you know it. Please, please help me get out. My husband will pay you handsomely, he’s an ambassador and we--”

“I can’t,” he interrupted.

“Yes you can! You work here, don’t you?”

“Yes, but I can’t let you go. You’re too important. Besides, the boss would literally have my head. You’re stuck here. I’m sorry.”

At least he seemed genuine in his remorse even though he started walking away immediately. 

Maria followed. “But you know I don’t belong here. I’m not like you.”

Much to her annoyance, Matthew only shrugged.

“Please? Please. I’m a mother, you had a mother, didn’t you? Wouldn’t you want her free to be with you?”

This got a reaction. He stopped and spun to face her, clearly surprised.

“A mother? When? I thought--” He cut himself off, face closing off into an unreadable mask.

“She’s six, please she needs me.”

“Six? You’ve only been gone…..”

“No, I’ve been with her. I’m her mother. You have the wrong person. What if she’s all alone right now? My husband is hurt and I don’t know if he even got proper medical help… Please.”

Maybe if she kept begging, he’d understand her plight. With a sigh, Matthew rubbed a hand over his eyes.

“Your silver tongue has lost its grace,” he muttered. “Come on, let’s get you settled. We’ll get some clothes first.”

They stopped at a large warehouse-like room, filled with shelves and shelves of simple shirts and jeans in all sizes, like a miniature department store. Somehow Matthew picked out her exact size and handed her a couple pairs of jeans along with shirts in varying shades of purple, her favorite color. A pair of heavy boots was added but she protested until he swapped them out for a pair of sandals.

Next, he showed her where the elevators were and told the car, “Eleven, please.” It brought them up to another grey hallway, though this one had doors along it, like an apartment she realized as Matthew lead the way again. She had lived in an apartment once… During university… No, she had lived in the dorms, then married Roderich right after. No apartment for her. What had she majored in…. With a start, she realized she couldn’t remember. Shock, she told herself. She was just in shock over the whole thing.

Matthew knocked on an unmarked door. All of the doors were unmarked she noticed, now that she was actively looking.

There was no answer so he leaned against the wall. “Don’t suppose you have the keys?” he asked sarcastically.

“Don’t be stupid.”

He shrugged, fingers drumming against his thigh. There wasn’t much to say so she remained quiet, mind wandering back to her family no matter how much she tried not to think about them. Panicking would do no good. Finally Ivan came down the hall, smiling happily to himself. Matthew nodded at him as Ivan unlocked the door and gently nudged her inside.

“Where’s the other woman? Louise?” she asked, stepping back outside.

“Getting food,” Ivan called from the kitchen. “We ran out of some things this morning.”

Matthew nudged her again and she reluctantly stepped in, looking around carefully. Very modern, with clean lines, white surfaces, and gleaming metal. The furniture was all beige and she shuddered, thinking of all the messes her daughter could create.

Her gut told her this was Louise’s work. Ivan was too much of a homey -- seemed to be too much of a homey guy to actively seek out such decor. Behind her, the door shut and Matthew was gone. No sense in leaving anyway. She didn’t know how to get out and didn’t think she could make it that far even if she managed it.

Ivan passed through the living room where she was, setting a drink can on the coffee table before heading down a hallway.

“Help yourself to whatever you want. The tv remote is on the table, your room is the first one.”

And then he was gone. A few minutes later she heard the shower going. Might as well watch tv… The remote was easy enough and she picked the news, hoping to hear something about her or her family. Nothing.

By the time it was wrapping up, Ivan reappeared, hair dark from the shower and only wearing sweatpants. Large, intricate tattoos took up most of his chest and she found herself tracing them with her eyes as he sat on the couch. Without his tight shirt, she could see his stature better than before, a solid torso with vaguely defined muscles that she still knew were there. Looking up, he caught her gaze.

“Like them?”

“They’re… prison tattoos,” she began slowly, pieces starting to click together. No wonder she was afraid of him! He was a criminal! And a long term one too, if the sheer amount meant anything.

He nodded and popped open the can, taking a long, slow drink.

“I’m surprised you recognized them, since you don’t recognize even your sister.”

“She’s not my sister,” came the automatic rebuttal.

Ivan shrugged, one massive shoulder rolling, the muscle under the tattooed skin rippling.

“How…. What do they mean?” she asked meekly, not entirely sure she wanted to know. She had to though. She was stuck here with him until they realized who she was and let her go… if they didn’t kill her. And if she was who they thought (impossible, she had all of her life accounted for and it was just impossible to create a whole new one in her head) then she had a younger sister and she then needed to protect that sister. So it was for the best she know all about the tattoos.

“Let’s just say I’ve left behind the past and leave it at that. I have a new life and a new wife and a new job.” 

There was a large burn across the back of his hand, another across the base of his neck on the right side, and Maria knew better than to ask about what those scars meant.

Ivan stood suddenly and headed for the door, opening it right as Louise was reaching for the handle.

“How do you know I’m coming,” she murmured, meaning it less as a question and more of a statement as she kissed him.

“I got breakfast. Hungry?” she asked Maria, handing the bags off to Ivan. Maria nodded slowly, backing up until she bumped into the large chair, allowing the other two to pass her by. in the kitchen, the couple could be heard arguing over meal plans and who was making what. She sunk back down onto the cushion and tried to ignore the pangs of loneliness. She and Roderich did that too, back when they were first together and cooking at his place…. How she missed him.

Louise came back in with a cup of tea and a plate of eggs and ham… Her favorite breakfast. Even the tea was her favorite brand, the familiar white and blue tag hanging off the worn mug. Could she have been wrong-- No. Louise was a spy, of course she knew something as simple as this.

The other two sat on the couch, cuddled up with each other as Louise sipped her coffee and Ivan ate, the tv playing a rerun of an old show.

“I would like to sleep,” Maria announced suddenly, standing up with her plate.

“Are you done?” Louise asked in surprise. “You hardly touched--”

“Now,” she demanded more firmly.

With a sigh of resolution, Louise took the plate into the kitchen, then lead her to the bedroom Ivan had pointed out was hers.

“All your stuff is in there… I left it just in case,” the younger woman half-whispered. “I just dusted and vacuumed, that’s it.”

The door was shut and Maria tried to quash the feelings of guilt. She owed this woman nothing. They were not related and she was the victim, not Ms. Kidnapper.

Maybe Mrs. Kidnapper. Ivan had mentioned he had a new wife. Did that mean new wife or just wife? Had they recently married or new as in not the original? Her head was starting to hurt. Damn these lunatics.

A set of pajamas were found after some searching and she curled up in the bed, cold without her husband.


	4. Chapter 4

For the next couple days, Maria’s life was quiet. Louise and Ivan drifted in and out of the apartment according to their needs, and Maria got the feeling they were avoiding the elephant in the room. Neither of them had brought up the topic of her supposed memory loss and she wasn’t about to help. Her dreams were filled with a dark foreboding - dreams of her hands loading a gun meticulously, of Louise giggling next to her as they sat huddled on a rooftop, ones with Matthew in them… Those were the worst, especially when their dream selves couldn’t keep their hands off each other. The real Matthew had visited every day since he dropped her off at her supposed sister’s apartment, and every time he was quiet and withdrawn, mostly sitting on the couch and pointedly not looking at her until he thought she wasn’t looking at him. It felt as if she was being aggressively courted by a sullen man who wasn’t sure if he really wanted her. Well, she was wanted, at least somewhere, and she was going to get back to her family one way or another. In the meantime, she tried to keep up her usual routine of cooking and cleaning. The first time she had started, Louise and Ivan had both stared at her as if she had grown two heads. Apparently the other Maria didn’t clean much outside her own room. She pushed on anyway. A good wife didn’t let such things get her down. Cleaning also helped keep her mind off her current predicament and the dreams. Most likely they were a result of the sudden thrust of a real life spy agency kidnapping her for nefarious means. A subconscious movement of her mind to both accept and deny the claims.

On the fifth day Louise and Ivan bade her goodbye and left her alone in the house until a few hours later when Matthew ‘escorted’ her back to Toris’ office where he scanned her head with a wand he claimed was a portable x-ray. It was attached to a hand-held computer screen which Toris seemed uninterested in.

“My guess,” he finally told Matthew who was sitting in the corner, “is she suffered some sort of drama and wiped her whole life clean to start over, or she has been mentally attacked by another organization. You’re not without enemies.” This last part was directed at her.

“I don’t have enemies,” Maria protested. Maybe a cashier at the store, who always scowled at her and was never polite.

“You have plenty of enemies,” came Toris’ self-assured answer. “The only problem is figuring out who did this. My guess is someone who held a grudge and wanted you out of the way, but not enough to just kill you outright. Ideas?”

Matthew shrugged.

“Well if your field partner doesn’t know, I suppose we’ll have try something else.” A stack of papers were pulled out of a desk drawer and handed off to Matthew. “I’d suggest start with your main enemies, then work your way down. Plus looking through old files may refresh your memory.”

Normally Maria would have protested being talked to as if she wasn’t there or wasn’t capable of understanding, but by now she was ready to put up with anything just to get them to realize she wasn’t who they thought. Matthew scribbled something on the paper and handed it back as Maria stood up.

“Ah ah. You’re going to be staying here.” A screen rolled down as Maria sat back down. Toris flicked off the lights and tapped a few keys on his computer. “I put this together while waiting. I had hoped being around your sister would help…” He trailed off as the first image came to life on the screen, a slight man with dark black hair and darker eyes.

Maria shook her head.

“Huh,” was all Toris said.

“That’s our boss,” Matthew added.

More pictures, more shakes of her head. The only picture she thought she recognized of the whole bunch turned out to be another hitman who she - rather, the other her - had gotten into a fist fight with over some sort of “rule” being broken. She’d didn’t want to know any more than that.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Matthew protested when Toris was finished explaining the man’s significance to Maria. “That was so long ago, before I was her partner… Why strike now?”

Toris didn’t know. Another set of slides was shown to her, all unfamiliar people and places.

“It could be possible you hit your head and the new damage is hidden among the older ones,” Toris finally supplied. “The last contact we had with you was right before your latest hit. You said you had to go and hung up on your sister. Of course you two were in a fight at that time, so no one thought anything of you heading off on your own for a few days to calm down.”

“I thought something of it,” Matthew grumbled.

“Yes yes, your sweetheart and ops manager ran off, leaving you with the hotel bill and no way home. We picked you up and reimbursed you.”

“That wasn’t it. I was more concerned about her forgotten gun and out of character inability to check in with someone, anyone!”

Sweetheart? No wonder Matthews was constantly hanging around, especially if she looked very similar to this other woman. Poor Matthew. Toris shrugged and kept shrugging as Matthew bombarded him with questions. What now? What could they do? What was he supposed to tell Louise who was currently incommunicado? On and on and on. Finally he stopped and stalked out, leaving Maria with Toris who was getting out more electrodes.

“You’re not going to shock me, are you?” she asked.

“Get that from Ivan, did you? Don’t worry, shock therapy is widely discredited - though it would explain your memory loss… If you received a direct shock to the brain, it could induce memory loss. It would also explain your uncharacteristic behaviour like leaving your weapon and belief you are married. Tell me.” He sat down in front of her chair with a clipboard. “Do you have strange dreams or flashes of memories that are not your own?”

She hesitated before nodding slowly. “They’re mostly nightmares, about me or L-Louise…. Shooting people…”

“Just one person? From a distance?” he asked hopefully.

“No… The last one we were killing a crowd of people.”

“Any you recognized?”

“No…”

He sat back in the chair with a sigh. “Perhaps your subconscious is conflicted. You’re trying to reconcile what you believe to be true with what you are starting to remember. Your current frame of mind would reject what is being told to you because of your current… Let’s say moral situation. You once told me assassinations were just a job, now you might feel differently because you identify as a wife and mother, a so called ‘normal member of society’.”

Toris was less help than she was expecting after the ‘revelation’ regarding her current status, but he did give her a flash drive; supposedly this was her whole life, her deceased parents, her little sister growing up, her personal documents, and other things Toris could only guess at.…. She had tucked it into her pocket and occasionally touched it through her jeans as she walked. With his directions, she easily found the firing range where she was supposed to fire off a few shots, see if it revived anything.

 

Maybe Toris was just the guy everyone went to when they had problems and he eventually became the de facto therapist. He was a good listener, made one feel like they were the only thing going on in his life at the time. She could appreciate that. 

Matthew was in there, unloading an empty clip as she came in. With barely a cursory glance in her direction, he slapped the new clip in and raised the gun to fire at a distant target. He didn’t hit the target in the middle more than twice and she stepped into the stall next to him with her own rented pistol, feeling the heavy weight in her hands as she tried to focus it.

The man who was in charge of letting out equipment hadn’t seem too thrilled to see her and he complained the whole time he was retrieving the renal weapon. He complained while showing her how to load it and how to fire. He complained that she mistreated every gun save her beloved sniper rifle and it was up to him to take care of all the messes she made. Finally she got out of a longer lecture after promising to take care of this one, as well as promising to come back for lessons in how to properly clean and wipe it down for fingerprints.

Squeezing the trigger, she winced at the noise that felt like a thunderclap right in her skull, even with the ear guards on. Her hands were numb from the retort and she set the gun down, shaking them out.

“Here.” Matthew was by her side, picking up the gun and pressing it into her hands. “It takes some getting used to, if you haven’t done it for a while.”

With his help, she lifted the pistol again, aiming and firing off two shots. Her heart raced as she turned to face him, excited in her success. Twice in the center of the target! He was much closer than expected and she found her eyes drawn to his lips…. They looked soft… And they were supposed to be sweethearts... Surely… one kiss wouldn’t be too bad….

He seemed to read her mind and leaned in as well until their noses brushed.

“We should wait,” he murmured, even as they leaned in closer, his breath brushing her lips right before he kissed her.

The gun was dropped - Feliks or Fred or whatever his name was would follow through on his threat to string her up by her Achilles tendons - but she didn’t care because her arms were around a strong neck and he was pulling her close by her waist.


	5. Chapter 5

Had Louise known how boring life as a secret agent would be, she would have reconsidered blindly following her sister into their current job. But at fifteen, when her parents suddenly died, she had been so impressed by her 20 year old super secret agent sister that she had signed up as soon as she was able at 18. Now, she was 28 and ten years into service, and thinking perhaps jumping in headfirst might have been premature.

Sighing, she shifted her position. For the past three days, they had been staked out on top of the roof overlooking their target’s flat. Thankfully the weather was just cold, not wet or utterly miserable, so they could huddle together for warmth.

Next to her, Ivan was playing a game on his phone while she watched the target make dinner. They were waiting for the perfect moment to take him out and Louise was waiting to see if his neighbor would leave. If the neighbor left they could shoot him and leave. If not, they'd have to move in close and get messy. Ivan sighed as one of the Tetris pieces fell in the wrong place and he leaned against her, jostling her position.

“I’m trying to watch,” she warned, taking her gaze away from the neighbor to ruffle his hair.

He grumbled but kept leaning. Looking back through her binoculars, she held her breath as the neighbor put on his boots… Yes! He was leaving.

“Get ready!” she told Ivan who dropped the phone and grabbed his gun, propping it up on the low wall around the top of the roof. It had kept them hidden this whole time but Louise wouldn’t miss it. After making sure no one else was watching from any direction, Louise gave him a quick count-down.

“Three, two, one…. Fire.” A single shot was drowned out by the noise of the city and Louise watched through the binoculars as the glass cracked and the target fell, the cup in his hand shattering on the floor.

“Perfect. Alright, let’s pack up and head out. I want to sleep in a bed tonight, not on the ground.”

“You could sleep on me,” Ivan offered as he started disassembling his rifle.

“But then you’ll have to sleep on the ground and you’d complain about the cold and I’d rather avoid that.” 

She quickly folded up their sleeping bags and shoved them into their bags.

“I was thinking a nice hotel. Yao can front the bill. He owes us that much.”

“Mmmm. I want dinner first.”

They caught a bus to uptown and Louise found a nice hotel with a restaurant Ivan would like next to it. After checking in and dropping their stuff off in the room, they wandered down to the restaurant hand in hand. Just like any other normal couple. They even shared a sundae. Normally Louise would have shriveled up and died from embarrassment from their overly sweet relationship, but this wasn’t so bad. Overly sweet and sensitive but not horrifically so. 

Back at the hotel, Louise lingered in the shower until she was wrinkled. The mirror was all fogged up as she dried off. Ivan was lounging on the bed and they changed positions, Louise burrowing into the sheets he had warmed up. Mmmm. Perfect. He was faster than she was in the shower and soon he was in bed with her, chin resting on her shoulder as he watched some sort of crime show.

His hands wandered around her waist and she grumbled as he pulled until she rolled onto her back. He promptly rested his head on her breast. With anyone else the contact might be taken as sexual but with Ivan it was just… him. Innocent and sweet until he wasn’t and then he was breathtaking. He might be able to break skulls like eggs, yet Louise never felt in danger around him. Besides, he was done with his past, despite what Maria said. Maria was just upset Louise was branching out to include someone beside her. Had been. Louise wasn’t sure where she stood with this new Maria.

“You stopped,” whined Ivan, poking her side to get her petting him again. She ran her fingers through his hair as she turned over the dilemma of Maria.

What to do? Should she suggest Maria be dropped back to her new family? Could she be that selfless? Or could she be selfish and keep her sister here, where she belonged? Yao would insist Maria either be bribed or somehow have her memory wiped so she couldn’t remember when she went back. Most likely they’d have to play it off as some sort of political thing. Ha, say it was the result of a drug deal gone bad and ruin Roderich’s reputation. She giggled at the thought of Roderich’s stuck up face twisting into horror when he realized his job was ruined over accusations of drugs. Maybe she was more affected by Ivan’s mind than she thought.

He seemed to sense this and nuzzled the flesh he was laying on before groping her other breast. Again, she grumbled at him. He grinned at her as he kissed her breast where the thin sleeping bra ended.

“We’re finally alone…. Almost a week.”

Ever since Maria had moved in, Louise had cut off all sex, not wanting to disturb her sister or in case Maria needed something in the night. She didn’t feel guilty in the slightest.

“And then on a roof for three days.”

“Three days with Maria, three days on the roof. Not a week plus three days, Dear.”

Ivan pouted so Louise kissed him.

“I suppose you do deserve something after such a perfect shot,” she teased, running her hands over the epaulette tattoos on his shoulders.

“I do,” came the eager agreement, Ivan’s eyes lighting up with hope and mischief.

“And I suppose it would be a shame if we didn’t fully utilize this bed….”

“It would be!”

“And I don’t feel tired just yet…”

“I’m sure we won’t be tired for a while. I have a plan,” he chimed in, sitting up between her legs. “Let’s have some fun.”

Their hands roamed over the other’s body, Louise taking the time to kiss his scars. “My poor Vanya…. I don’t take care of you like I should, hmmm?”

“You’re the one with the hard job,” he mumbled into her neck. “I just pull the trigger. You collect the information and make sure we’re ready and we’re safe and keep me on track.”

“That’s true.” Such a sweetheart, remembering all her work. She’d have to thank his sisters when she saw them next. Ivan needed a break too. In her quest to find Maria, she had been running herself ragged for the past year and Ivan had trailed after her in confusion and worry. He didn’t understand why she was working so hard to find a woman who had proven herself to be very competent even when she wasn’t in constant contact, then worried with her when it became apparent Maria wasn’t showing up like she should.

Mentioning his sisters would most likely ruin the mood so she let him help her out of her underwear. Naturally her lover had come from the bathroom to the bed with nothing on. What a guy, that Ivan.

At least now they were alone and didn’t have to worry about Maria…. Who was most likely still sulking over her “family” and threatening people with her husband.

What to do, what to do…. This whole incident was a mess, start to finish, that was for sure.

Ivan rubbed her shoulders, knowing this must be frustrating to Louise, to exhaust all of her efforts and come up with a few grains of information which weren’t helpful in any way. Whoever this Roderich thought he was, he had picked the wrong family to mess with and Louise was going to use all of her extensive talents to fix whatever she saw as wrong with her sister. He would have done the same thing if someone was messing with either of his sisters, especially since he had worked so hard for them.

Ekaterina had trouble holding down jobs for various reasons, especially with lascivious male bosses, and Natasha was too young to work, so he he had to help support them all. From a young age, he had fallen in with a bad crowd and gotten mixed up in the wrong institutions. Yao had changed all of that when he was jailed for a hit. The older man had showed up at Ivan’s cell and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. As soon as he got out on a much shorter sentence thanks to Yao, he joined up with MAU and never looked back. Now his sisters were well cared for and he was free to pursue any relationship he wanted without worry of retribution from his old ‘family.’

“We can fix this. I know you can. And I’ll be here to help you, no matter what.”

She sighed and leaned back against the pillows. “There’s nothing else…. I’ll have to do field work to find out what to do next. Why don’t you go visit your sisters while I do that? You can’t exactly come with me or do anything without me. Though you could go with Matthew to fill some marks.”

“I’m not going anywhere without you at my back. You’re the only one I trust,” he assured her.

Kissing her neck, he reached over and flicked off the lights. “You can start tomorrow. Let’s go to bed and figure out what to do about Maria tomorrow.”


	6. Chapter 6

Louise twirled a set of keys in her hand, legs propped up on the arm of the couch, bare feet dangling into the kitchen doorway. Maria could feel something was different in the air, but she wasn’t sure exactly what had happened. Did Louise know about her infidelity with Matthew? Oh God, what would she tell Roderich? With a sigh, Louise laid her head back on the other side of the couch.

“Your daughter’s… what, six?”

“Yes.”

“When’s her birthday?”

“It was a few months ago… In January.”

“Around yours, then.”

“Yes.”

“How was the labor?”

“... Fine. As well as could be expected…” Why was Louise taking such an interest in her family now?

“And your husband’s an ambassador of…..?”

“You’re the spy. You tell me.”

“Why don’t you tell me? In the interest of refreshing your memory?” No answer came from Maria’s chair and Louise lifted her head to look at her. “Well?”

“I’m thinking.”

“About your husband’s job?”

“I’m tired. I’m homesick. Why are you asking me this?”

“I just want to know.”

“Idiot. He’s the ambassador for Austria to Spain.”

“.... But he lives here?”

“... Yes. Who cares?”

“You do know this isn’t Austria or Spain, right?”

“I’m not stupid.”

Louise shrugged and lay back down. “When’s my birthday?”

“October third.” Maria paused. “...Ivan told me.”

“No I didn’t!” Ivan called from the kitchen.

“So you really don’t know who I am, hmm?”

“It was a lucky guess.”

“Sure, sure. When’s Ivan’s birthday?”

“When was hell founded?” Maria snapped, wanting this interrogation over with.

“December thirtieth,” Ivan supplied.

“Fuck off.”

“Be nice to my boyfriend.”

“I thought he was your husband? He said he was.”

“He just says that because he wants to break anyone’s head who looks at me,” Louise remarked flippantly. “When I’m old and grey, I’ll marry him. By then, he’ll be older and greyer so I’ll know for sure that he loves me.”

“I’m not that old!” Ivan shouted again.

“Yes you are, dear. But I love you anyway.”

From the chair, Maria gagged.

“Oh shut up. Like you and your ‘husband’ didn’t do the same.”

“He never killed people for looking at me.”

“How boring,” Ivan commented as he maneuvered to sit under Louise’s head, running his fingers through her hair.

“So? It was safe.”

“And here I thought you slept with me because you liked my dangerous side.” His leg was slapped by Louise as Maria gaped.

“We…. No. No!” By all that was holy, please let him be lying, she begged in her mind.

“Just the once. You were rather boring. What, she was,” he defended himself, blocking Louise’s additional hits. “And she said I wasn’t worth the wasted time. Besides, I didn’t know you were her sister when we got together.”

Louise settled down again, grumbling about annoying sisters and crazy boyfriends. 

“What’s your father’s name?” Louise asked after a while.

“Aldar.”

“Same. Roderich’s mother’s name?”

“She’s dead.”

“How convenient.”

Maria ground her teeth and refused to answer any more questions by retreating to her room.

At 12:47, Maria was woken by a loud thump and a giggle. Feeling under her pillow for a weapon - she didn’t find one - she then hurried to the door, carefully opening it to peer into the living room. Another thump came from Louise’s room and she hesitated.

What if they were doing something highly illegal? Shooting things? Torturing someone? Or just having loud sex. That was most likely it.

With a groan, she returned to bed, stuffing the pillow over her ears to block out the sound. Why had she lived with a full-grown sister who had a live-in boyfriend? That was asking for trouble. Maybe Ivan had moved in after she moved out, she thought as she drifted into sleep. Lu had always been such a sweet girl, never wanting to upset her sister. Maybe her disappearance had been good for her, let her stand on her own two feet and not rely constantly on Maria for emotional support.

“But I’m not her sister,” she told herself very loudly, having forgotten who and where she was in the haze of sleep. Shit, she hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Covering her mouth with a hand, she listened for any sign that she had disturbed the couple. Barely a minute had passed before a timid knock sounded at her door.

“Maria?” Louise called softly as she opened the door. “I know you’re awake. Are you alright?”

There was no use denying it, so Maria sat up.

“Yeah. Just talking to myself.”

“Oh…. About?” Well, there was no way she could say she had been denying Louise as a sister.

“Just things. Go back to bed. Sleep.”

Louise opened her mouth to say something but closed it and closed the door, leaving the room dark and colder than it had been.


	7. Chapter 7

In the morning, Louise was gone, leaving Ivan and Maria at the house. Ivan was cleaning his gun with quick movements that expressed a familiarity and Maria watched him, fingers twitching occasionally as she half-remembered, half-thought she knew what she could do if she was disassembling the gun too. 

Maria avoided Matthew for the next week. She avoided everyone except Arthur, strangely, who had coloring books and crayons in his office. For the children of employees who occasionally came in, he had told her. As she flipped through the books, she found her usual elaborate ‘J’ as a signature at the bottom of some of the pages, so apparently the children weren’t the only ones who came in here.

Louise tried to pull her away from her coloring one time, but Maria ignored her until the younger woman left. Strange to realise that Louise was younger than her, not older like she had thought at first. How strange, to realize she didn’t fit in where she had thought, that she still didn’t fit in, not even with her new sister and her boyfriend. Maria knew she was causing a rift between the stubborn Ivan who wanted to push her back into her old job and the more hesitant Louise who wanted to let Maria take her own pace. She could hear them talking sometimes at night, their quiet giggles replaced by a stony silence, and she was too cowardly to face them so she hid in Arthur’s office.

Finally, Louise seemed to reach a breaking point. Physically hauling Maria out of the office one day, she didn’t answer any questions or even look at her as she marched down to the garage and they drove off to a small apartment Louise had a key for. Apparently it was a sort of safe house Maria quickly discovered when she tried to lower the blinds with the switch to the side of the window and instead a thick sheet of metal snapped down to cover the window. She didn’t touch any strange switches after that. Two long days passed with Louise chain smoking and pacing a hole in the carpet. All Maria could do was watch her or try to read. What a boring life. On the third day, she begged Louise to let them go out and get something to cook with. It didn’t take too much convincing: Louise seemed to recognize the tone Maria took when she first made her request. She was nice enough to whine the first time in a polite manner, but after that all bets were off. Before Sarah, she would and did lie on the floor clinging to people’s legs, poke them repeatedly, and generally make a nuisance of herself until she got her way.

At the store, she made herself somewhat useful by pushing the cart and moodily agreeing to whatever Louise suggested until they got to the meat department, at which point she let Louise decide what to get while she skipped off to another aisle, heart swelling with the sweet, sweet feeling of being free without someone constantly hovering over her shoulder, even it her space was temporary.

As she examined the shelves, people passed behind her without any notice and she finally spotted the can of tomatoes she was looking for. Of course it was on the top shelf so she had to reach for it and as she strained upwards, hand grasping, another hand came from behind and plucked it neatly from the row, depositing it into her hand. Her grin faded as she turned to thank whoever it was and she recognized…. Someone. He was so familiar but she couldn’t place his face even though he elicited a wave of terror in her heart.

“Good evening, Miss Beilschmidt,” he murmured, brushing her hair behind her shoulder. “I haven’t seen you in ages. I heard you had a husband and daughter now, and you had forgotten about me. But now I see you were just playing at house for a time. Hoping I’d forget about you?”

She backed up against the shelves, hoping to scoot away from him until his arms trapped her between them and he leaned in, his warm breath washing over her face.

“Nothing to say? Usually you’d be saying something crass about my genitalia and how you’re going to dissect them.” He leaned in even closer and Maria tried not to think about how calm he had looked in pictures, back in Toris’ office where Matthew was explaining who he was. Edward Botting. Her arch-nemesis, if she ever really had one. Now he looked like he was bordering on the edge of fury. His shoulders were tense and he leaned in even closer until they were all but touching. Maria shuddered.  
“I think you and I need to have a conversation alone.” Without even so much as a by-your-leave, he grabbed her arm and hauled her outside, repositioning them so he had one arm around her waist, the other holding a gun against her side.


	8. Chapter 8

A warehouse might have been too cliche but a fancy house with delicate doilies was too far in the other direction. Why were there so many? Was there a sale at the doily bulk store? Maria flicked one, watching it skitter across the surface.

“Do you have a maid?” she asked, draped over the couch. The house was sooooo clean. A team of maids, maybe?

Edward didn’t answer, apparently too busy with his newspaper. He wasn’t even reading it, the ass. Just flipping through, staring at a single point despite the pages he turned.

Maria sighed dramatically. He wasn’t even giving her the attention she wanted. Hell, she wasn’t sure she couldn’t just get up, lie about going to the bathroom, and run away through a window or door. Why not try it?

She stood, finally getting his attention. “I’m going to the bathroom.”

“No you’re not.”

“Yes I am,” she snapped. “If you’re half the spy or assassin you claim to be, I wouldn’t be able to escape, and I am not able pissing all over your floor and couch, dammit!”

With her piece spoken, she turned sharply on her heel and stormed down the hallway, opening doors until she found what she was looking for. Splashing her face with some water, she patted her face dry with a very boring towel. Huh. So the only decor was in the living room? Boring! If he was going to go all out with the doilies, why not go all the way with the whole house?

The bathroom was very clean though, strengthening her theory that he hired a cleaning service. Or just didn’t use it. Was he a robot? That was a fun thought.  
She took her time returning to the living room, looking over the pictures in the hallway. Wow, very boring. A leaf. A rock in water. The sun. If this man was bread, he would be white bread. Maria would be bread with more nuts than bread. That was the best bread, obviously.

“You took your time,” he complained when she flopped back down on the couch. “And don’t-- Be gentle with my things.”

“Oh, of course your highness,” she snarked at him, slinging her feet up on the couch for extra annoyance.

Gods, she missed her family, more than ever. Sure Sarah might leave fingerprints on the windows and Roderich dropped toast on her clean floor, but she loved them. Their house was clean and lived in, not clean and robotic.

“Are you a robot?” she asked after a long stretch of silence. Edward didn’t answer. So then, yes, yes he was.

Where was Louise? Wasn’t her sister supposed to rescue her? Maybe they didn’t know where she was. So her next goal was to get to a phone and…. Call a number she didn’t know. Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. Okay, maybe Louise had put a tracker under her skin. No, she would have noticed unexplained soreness, right? Groaning, she let her head fall back on the couch arm. Dammit all. Night was falling, so he’d have to sleep or plug in to recharge or something, and while he might tie her up or handcuff her, she was sure she’d get out of it. Then it was a simple matter of breaking a window and running and screaming for help until help arrived.  
That was one idea, now for a second. Uuuhhhhhh. Knocking him out and stuffing the doilies in his mouth. Nice. Good idea, Maria.

Unfortunately for her admittedly pitiful plans, she was forced back into the car at nightfall where she was driven to the much more appropriate location of...

"A deserted warehouse? Really?" she asked, rolling her eyes as they drove through the open gate.

"A factory," he mumbled, having the grace to sound a little embarrassed. Louise and Ivan were waiting at the end, Ivan cradling a rifle, Louise's pistol in a thigh holder. Holster. Whatever it was called, she had no time or energy for this.

As Edward stepped out of the car, he locked the door, not that she could get out anyway, being buckled in with her hands cuffed to the seat belt.

He walked up to Louise and Ivan, the three of them quickly starting an argument with a lot of yelling and gesturing, none of which Maria could understand inside the car. The back door suddenly opened and when she turned, she found Matthew, the tall man quietly, not-quite shutting the door so it didn't look open, but could be kicked open easily.

"It's okay," he murmured in her ear, unbuckling her seat belt and wrestling with the cuffs. "Just keep an eye on him, tell me if he's coming. We told him we'd pay for your return, but...."

But who knew how long Louise and Ivan could keep him distracted was what he was saying. The cuffs were proving more of a challenge than expected, the chains too strong to break and the keyhole resisting his attempts to pick it.

"He's coming," she hissed, and Matthew ducked down behind her seat, out of Edward's sight. He slammed the door shut, glaring at the dashboard which dinged to helpfully remind him that a door was open. As Edward turned, Matthew's hand shot from the back, gun in hand, and he let off a single, earth-shattering shot which blew Edward's head wide open.

Maria screamed and screamed and screamed, even when Matthew rifled through Edward's pockets for the key which he unlocked her cuffs and pulled her out. She was still screaming as he lay her on the ground and Louise craddled her head. There was so much blood, he had just been alive and now he was dead! What did it even mean, this had to be a dream but the smell of blood was still heavy in the air and when she looked at her hands, she realized they were covered in blood and---

Shoving Louise away, Maria threw up, long hair dragging in the dirt and grime, and the disgusting feeling of snot and vomit on her chin was too much. She kept throwing up, dimly aware there was now a raging fire where the car used to be. Oh gods, this was the worst night. The worst day. A man was killed, her ears were ringing. She had indirectly killed a man, it was her fault because she had been kidnapped because she hadn't been paying attention and now he was dead.

Louise kept rubbing her back, pulling her hair out of her face and braiding it, murmuring something Maria couldn't understand for the ringing in her ears.


End file.
